Driver/owner Ed Carpenter, however, saw Conway's decision as an opportunity.

This year, Ed Carpenter Racing is sporting a two-platoon mentality --- Conway is handling driving duties on the road courses, while Carpenter plans to take the wheel of the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet for the ovals.

It's not your typical driver-team arrangement, but 33-year-old Carpenter is not your typical IndyCar owner, either. He knows that he has to be resourceful if he wants his one-car team to compete with the multicar behemoths at Penske Racing, Andretti Autosport and Ganassi Racing.

"There were two schools of thought when [Conway] came out and did that," Carpenter said. "Some praised him for the courage. There were others who questioned his commitment. You have to give it to him. He made a decision he felt he needed to make and obviously it was the right decision for him. I think out of it, he became a more confident and focused driver. He was driven to do what he wanted to do."

Carpenter, who is strong on ovals, is banking this year on Conway's road-course expertise to make the Ed Carpenter Racing entry a factor in every race.

Last year, Conway proved to be a beast on road courses. He had a win and a third-place finish during the Chevrolet Belle Isle Grand Prix weekend in Detroit for owner Dale Coyne. This year, Carpenter already has a win at Long Beach and is looking forward to the next two road circuits -- May 10 at Indianapolis and the May 31-June 1 doubleheader back in Detroit on Belle Isle.

"We started talking about [running two drivers for one car] at the end of last season," Carpenter said. "[Our sponsor] Fuzzy's didn't really care one way or another. Weve got a great relationship with them and they want to support me.

"I was looking at it as a way to take the next step as a team, do more to bring in new partners and just bring up our performance. When we started looking at who would be interested in that sort of situation, Mike was really the guy because he doesn't want to race ovals. So, it's simple. It has just worked out really well, and to get a win early in the season just made us feel really good about it.

Putting Conway in the car has cut down on Carpenter's seat time, but that has allowed him to put more time into the company.

"Someone asked me if it was a tough decision for me to step out of the car," Carpenter said. "Yeah, but I don't feel the decision I had was anything like the decision he had. Mine is more just a strategic business decision to make our team stronger, better, more sustainable because the team is what I want my future to be. I have to make sure I'm not making a selfish personal decision that would affect my long-term success."

That's not to say that Carpenter, who had never raced on a road circuit prior to the 2005 IndyCar season, doesn't miss racing on the road once in a while.

"I felt like I was making gains all the time," he said. "I've had competitors tell me how much closer I was getting and how far I had come. That was the hard part. In 2005, when I did my first road race, I was way off. I closed the gap immensely. I would love to compete in those races again if we had the partners to do it.

"Right now, as a one-car team, this just makes the most sense to us to try to maximize our results and show the full potential of what we feel we have."

Carpenter hopes to grow his IndyCar team, but he stresses it wants that growth will be controlled and calculated. He's not interested in adding cars –- he is adding a second car for driver J.R. Hildebrand for the Indianapolis 500 -- or employees just to try keep up with the big boys across the street. Carpenter's shop numbers just 17 full-time employees, which he said includes four people in engineering and an efficient office staff.

"I don't really worry about getting bigger," Carpenter said. "I just worry about getting better. We get talked about a lot, being and underdog and kind of a small team. Internally, we don't view ourselves that way. We've got great partners in Fuzzy's and Chevrolet. We do everything that we think we need to do to be competitive.

"I think we've been able to show that we're capable in all disciplines. We'd like to grow, but we've always been careful not to grow unless we felt it would make us better."

Mike Pryson
- Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and M-Live Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek as online motorsports editor In 2012.
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